I buck against him, my orgasm unravelling in waves of pleasure and release. There’s no pain. Only fulfillment. This was meant to be. A union of shifter souls. We belong together, to each other. There’s no denying or escaping it now.
It is done.
Nash
I DON’T MEAN to bite Denali. Like the first time, I didn’t know I was going to do it until my teeth are already buried in her flesh and I taste her blood. I release her and lick away the blood. “I’m sorry, baby.”
“No.” She stops me. It’s a queen’s command. There’s no room to argue with her. “This is how we were meant to mate.”
Her words sweep through me like a warm breeze. My eyes and nose burn for a moment with the magnitude of it. She’s accepted me as her mate.
That scratchy voice in my head that tells me I can’t really have her-that I have nothing to offer but my pain and misery and violence-starts up, but I shove him back. I won’t let anything take away this moment. It may be the first time in my life I’ve experienced true happiness. True, full, unadulterated joy.
Denali is mine. The sun is shining, and the birds are chirping. I’m out in nature and no one’s trying to kill us. At least at the moment. And my body feels incredible.
It’s buzzing with an energy I’ve never known. Strength and vitality flow through my veins. It’s like I’ve just drunk some elixir that gives me superpowers. Is it from mating with Denali? Or letting my lion run? Or both?
Suddenly, I’m playful again. I roll of Denali and lift her to her feet. “Then you’d better run, or I’ll be showing you all the things my lion wants to do to assert his claim.” I slap her ass and shift.
She’s off in a flash, the fluffed tip of her tail swishing as she bounds over boulders, her sleek body leaping with boneless grace.
We run for hours, up and down the side of the mountain. A couple hikers come along, and we have to slip into an opening in a rock wall to watch them pass. Then we bound down to a stream where we drink. I haven’t been my lion this long before. It’s both freeing and terrifying.
What if he grows too strong? What if he doesn’t let me shift back? What if he demands to be let out on a regular basis? And my worst fear of all-what if he kills or maims someone?
But I don’t feel the dark violence simmering in me the way it usually fuels my gut. The sick lion who has to fight to live seems very far removed from the powerful beast strutting through the forest now. I truly feel like the king of the jungle.
I have no sense of time, but Denali must have better integration of her human senses with her lioness, because she leads me back to the car by early afternoon.
She shifts at the door, then reaches for the handle. It’s locked, and I see panic flare in her eyes, because she left the keys on the seat when we arrived.
I shift into human form. “I have them,” I tell her, my voice gruff after being in lion form. I grab them from the crook of a tree where I’d hidden them before following her this morning.
Her smile dazzles. “Always looking out for me, aren’t you?”
I nod, suddenly dead serious. “Believe it.”
She catches my tone and lifts her head, locking gazes with me over the top of the car. She’s unabashed about her nudity, which makes it even more spectacular as the afternoon sun makes her skin glow. “I do.” Her voice is soft.
Something’s changed between us. Something wonderful and serious. The defenses we had up are crumbling and we’re on the same side now. A team.
I toss the keys to her and she catches them easily and opens the door. We both pull on our clothes and climb into her little car.
“So, Nash?” Denali slips a sideways glance at me from under her long lashes. Lovely lioness.
“Yeah?”
“How are you feeling about fatherhood?”
Oh God. My heart starts beating faster. This is important. She’s asking me something important because of what changed between us today. I need to answer this right.
But I can’t lie, either.
“I’m scared shitless,” I admit.
She gives a surprised bark of laughter. “I know the feeling. Fates, when Nolan was born I had dreams that the back door of the car had opened up while I was driving, and his car seat was falling out.”
“Oh, Christ.”
“And I had one where I was still in high school and I’d accidentally left his carrier outside the classroom. Some other kids had picked him up and I was in a panic trying to find him.”
I give a rueful laugh. “It’s a daunting task. One nobody wants to fuck up.”
“Exactly.” She looks over again, her gaze sharp. “Are you up for it?”
The back of my neck prickles. Again, I have the sense my response could change the course of my life. Of our lives.
“Yeah.” I sound wheezy.
“You sure? Because there’s no half-assing this. You’re either in or you’re out. And you don’t get me without being all in with Nolan.”
The prickles are everywhere now-coursing down my shoulders and spine, along my legs. “I know,” my voice sounds strangled. “I’m in. I’m all in, Denali. You’re my family.”
If it’s true, why am I sweating? Why is my heart thundering faster than it did when I ran fifty miles on that mountain?
Do I just want it to be true, but I really know I can’t?
Or will I be able to prove myself to Denali and Nolan? Become something I never knew I could?
I don’t fucking know, but I’d better figure my shit out quick.